Lost Amongst Many

Chapter 9

Dinner with the bacs was tough. They are all carnivores, and I am a vegetarian- an omnivore by birth, an herbivore by choice. I went out with their hunting party, and collected my food. They all watched me intently, as if this was new to them, as I picked berries and pulled apples from surrounding trees.

While they hunted, I ran back to the clearing with a week's worth of food, exclusively for me. This was every week or so for the next three years without fail. With Jerome slowly getting older, and me getting older even more slowly, nothing about our relationship had changed. I still called him sir- as he was the alpha- and he barely addressed me directly to the point where I got so used to not being addressed, that I nearly forgot my name

One day though, the whole clearing emptied of its occupants. Jerome dragged me away by my mitt, and carried me like baby into a nearby tree. He whispered what he was doing in my ear.

"We are hiding. Stay silent. Poachers were discovered a mile away."

"But sir-"

"I said silent. Understand?" He hissed.

I nodded.

As I watched the meadow, three humans in camouflage uniforms stepped out into the space. They all had crossbows strapped to their backs with a quiver of arrows each, and also a rifle primed to shoot.

The baccas were all deathly silent, and I realized, horrified, that a cub was stranded on the ground. This one had recently been wounded by a bear trap set by humans, and had lost a paw. It could not climb trees any longer, and hid below in a bush.

The hunters got too near the cub, and its mother leapt down to protect it. She led the hunters away from the meadow, sacrificing herself for her handicapped cub. A while after, a shot rang out, and we all took a moment of silence to mourn the death of the mother of the cub.

With Jerome now 44 in his time, he was in the peak of his life. In human years, he was merely 11, and I- 9, but our lives were timed very differently. I noticed there were more bacca deaths than there were born in a single human year. To them, I was considered middle age- 32, but my times told me I was a year and a half old.

To test my theory of how humans can change over time in behavior, Jerome escorted me to see the King- Rob, and Mitch, whom Jerome so desperately wanted to see. We arrived at the gate. An 11 year old Mitch met us there.

"I thought you'd never come back. Jerome, do I see gray on your face?"

Jerome backed away, suddenly sensitive to his looks. He growled at Mitch, but then calmly submitted like a puppy when Mitch drew near. I let them recuperate with each other outside the gate, while I went in, wanting to see Rob despite the pain of the barrier.

I slipped inside the castle doors, and gaped at the size and pure beauty of the main hall. A voice behind me made me freeze in my tracks.

"What do you want?"